Stripped away of most of the commercial considerations that are a vital and complicated component of modern sports, Madden 96 let you act out getting onto a field for a bout of kicking, tossing, catching and making some VERY big tackles. In a way, sport at its purist, well…. apart from the exercise.

Overcooked 2, much like its predecessor, is a kitchen chaos simulator, yet the game is only tangentially about food. Its universal appeal is arguably more based on throwing a group of friends or strangers together and seeing the sparks fly as they fail to get the dishes done.

Unlike humans, genres arguably never die. But much like us, they do get older, adapting in unique ways to the rigours of time, while stubbornly sticking to other things they maybe should have let go. Out of this, greatness is sometimes haphazardly realised

In a world of ubiquitous microcomputers, the humble board game should be an anachronism consigned to a pre-digital age of entertainment. Yet the stripped back experience of rolling dice, picking cards and moving pieces around a board within carefully structured rules seemingly lends itself to good video game design based on the idea of doing more with less.